It goes without saying that 2020 has been a challenging year all over the world, not just at the San Diego Air & Space Museum.

But the Museum was thrown a completely unexpected curveball around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 22, when a car in the parking lot behind the Museum ran over a fire hydrant, shearing the hydrant off. The resulting geyser of water from the hydrant – which gushed for nearly an hour – created a wall of water which flowed across the parking lot and directly into loading dock leading into the Museum’s basement, the home to the Museum’s restoration shop, several archive and artifact storage rooms, and offices for employees.

Amazingly, despite several inches of water pouring into the basement, the Museum suffered surprisingly minimal damage because of three primary factors. The first was the fact the Museum has been systematically elevating many of the items stored in the basement to help prevent water damage from periodic floods during rainy periods. Second, a crew of firefighters in the parking lot at the time of the flood inflated a few of their hoses and placed them in front of the loading dock, creating a roughly 4-inch high barrier which helped divert water away from the basement and out back into other parts of the parking lot. Thirdly, the City of San Diego instantly hired a local renovation remediation company, which deployed professional level flood recovery equipment, including wet vacuums, powerful fans, drying compounds and more.

“Thanks to the preparedness of our staff, the quick thinking the San Diego Fire Department, and the decisive decision by the City of San Diego to hire a remediation company, we were fortunate to survive the flood without any major damage,” said Jim Kidrick, President & CEO of the Museum. “One thing is for certain: The San Diego Air & Space Museum is resilient and up to any challenge!”